CW Red Arrow / Speedy (WIP)

[NycWallCrawler9]

A few months back I started slowly collecting/building things for my Speedy (Red Arrow) cosplay from the show "Arrow." I won't be able to make everything exactly the same as it is on the show, since its almost impossible to source everything, but im gonna try to get it somewhat close! I'll be updating this thread all throughout the year.

(1) Con-Conveniant Recurve Bow
So, the screen used bow in the show is a takedown recurve, and if its standard size that could be up to 62 inches, which, carrying that around a con sounds pretty awful, it would be hard to not hit someone behind/in front of you, or a stand. I'm sure I could make an accurately shaped/sized bow, but I think it would be better to use something smaller.
I used a Barnett Lil' Sioux bow, which measures at 44.5" total. The original colors were black and green. (see photo)

I disassembled the bow with a stringer, wiped all of the peices down with alcohol wipes, then spray painted them. I used Krylon Fusion "Gloss Cherry" and "Flat Black" Here's the finished paint job.

I painted the riser black, the limbs red, and added the black fading from the tips.

I still have to figure out how to disable the bow to follow convention rules, I know most people take the string off, but I feel like that just makes it look nothing like a bow, plus with this type of bow, the limbs are fully straight until stringed, so it would look really odd.

 

[NycWallCrawler9]

(2) The Quiver and Arrows
For the quiver, I decided instead of just using the flimsy, small, thin, fake leather quiver that tends to come with most costumes, I'd take it a little further for better quality and get a real leather one.
At first I thought I would just make one, but the prices of leather that thick are pretty insane, so after a ton of searching, I found one on Etsy from the seller "TheGriffinWorks." for around $100 total, which is actually pretty cheap all things considered. Its fully real, smooth cow leather, and has a wood base on the bottom so arrows don't chew through it.

It was pretty much already almost exactly what I needed, except the original strap was a 3 way chest cross, and very uncomfortable, where as Thea's quiver is backpack strap styled. So I tweaked around with it and managed to come up with this design. Here's a comparison.
Original Straps:

Modified Straps:

Besides accuracy, changing the straps helped the leather not be so stretched, it also lowered the arrows, and overall made it a lot more comfortable.

For the arrows, the ones that speedy actually carries on the show are round turkey feathered, have black nocks, and have 2 reds, and one 1 black feather.
I wasn't able to find this exact combination obviously, and making them wouldn't work well, so I found some as close as I could. These are the ones I got. They are Linkboy 600 spine arrows.

I'm really happy with them, they're very high quality, and look pretty close to the show. They also look fantastic in the quiver.

 

[NycWallCrawler9]

(3) The Mask
for the mask, I printed out a template I found online, then traced it out on some craft foam I found at Walmart.

Next, I heat shaped it to a syryofoam mannequin head, and then spray painted it in the same color as the bow.
Then I just added the little details.
This is how it came out:

 

[NycWallCrawler9]

(4) The Boots
the boots were the easiest part I've done so far. I just got some plain black leather combat boots, and then cut strips of grungy red painted leather and put them in place of the tongue of the shoe.

 

[NycWallCrawler9]

Everything I've assembled for the costume so far.

 

[Batbird2008]

nice work. Any updates?